| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: in short, the voice a woman would willingly listen to after feeling
the flame of their looks. But, above all, they had the modesty of
pride, a chaste reserve, a TOUCH-ME-NOT which at a maturer age might
have seemed intentional coyness, so much did their demeanor inspire a
wish to know them. The elder, Comte Clement de Negrepelisse, was close
upon his sixteenth year. For the last two years he had ceased to wear
the pretty English round jacket which his brother, Vicomte Camille
d'Espard, still wore. The Count, who for the last six months went no
more to the College Henri IV., was dressed in the style of a young man
enjoying the first pleasures of fashion. His father had not wished to
condemn him to a year's useless study of philosophy; he was trying to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: have given one rupee."
The Other Man sat with a grin on his face, as if he enjoyed the
joke of his arrival; and Mrs. Schreiderling, in the mud, began to
groan. There was no one except us four in the office and it was
raining heavily. The first thing was to take Mrs. Schreiderling
home, and the second was to prevent her name from being mixed up
with the affair. The tonga-driver received five rupees to find a
bazar 'rickshaw for Mrs. Schreiderling. He was to tell the tonga
Babu afterwards of the Other Man, and the Babu was to make such
arrangements as seemed best.
Mrs. Schreiderling was carried into the shed out of the rain, and
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: I was going to make you a confession about my operas. Let us sit down in
this shade."
So they picketed the mules near the stream and sat down.
IV
You have seen," began Padre Ignacio, "what sort of a man I--was once.
Indeed, it seems very strange to myself that you should have been here
not twenty-four hours yet, and know so much of me. For there has come no
one else at all"--the Padre paused a moment and mastered the
unsteadiness that he had felt approaching in his voice--"there has been
no one else to whom I have talked so freely. In my early days I had no
thought of being a priest. By parents destined me for a diplomatic
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: on the bureau, which was covered with a napkin like an altar, stood
the box of shells that Victor had given her; also a watering-can and a
balloon, writing-books, the engraved geography and a pair of shoes; on
the nail which held the mirror, hung Virginia's little plush hat!
Felicite carried this sort of respect so far that she even kept one of
Monsieur's old coats. All the things which Madame Aubain discarded,
Felicite begged for her own room. Thus, she had artificial flowers on
the edge of the bureau, and the picture of the Comte d'Artois in the
recess of the window. By means of a board, Loulou was set on a portion
of the chimney which advanced into the room. Every morning when she
awoke, she saw him in the dim light of dawn and recalled bygone days
A Simple Soul |
